FAQs

Sessions are currently offered for Pre-algebra, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-calculus, Calculus, Statistics, SAT prep, and Indian Exam prep. Additional subjects may be added in the future.

You can be a part of the Schoolhouse.world community wherever you are! Since we have tutors from all around the world, you’re likely to find a session that works for you. When you’re signing up for sessions, the date and time are automatically converted to your time zone.

We require all learners and tutors to be at least 13 years old. We hope to expand to younger ages in the future.

Please see our session safety measures.

Sessions can range from twenty minutes to a few hours, depending on the tutor’s preference. When signing up for a session, you will be able to see the start time and the end time (which is automatically converted to your time zone).

The number of learners in each session may vary based on demand and tutor preference (each tutor sets their session capacity). Sessions typically have 3-10 learners.

No, all sessions are completely free of cost.

It’s completely up to you and your parents whether you turn your camera on.

As soon as COVID-19 hit, schools transitioned to online learning and students around the world craved more social interaction. Access to personalized and personal help was more inequitable than ever. This situation prompted Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, to partner with his college friend, Shishir Mehrotra, cofounder and CEO of Coda. Together, with Mariah Olson, Drew Bent, and a handful of volunteers, they created Schoolhouse.world. The pilot platform was built on Coda and used by a couple of thousand students from over 40 countries. In Jan 2021, the platform was relaunched and is now ready to scale to hundreds of thousands of learners.

Our tutors are volunteers who are committed to giving all kids access to the supplemental help they need. Some are teachers by background, while others are people who just love to teach. All tutors are hand-picked through our application process, and carefully monitored for quality and safety.

Every tutor must be certified (see below) in order to tutor. However, no prior experience is needed as you will be mentored by more experienced tutors as soon as you join the system. You will have the opportunity to build your skills by watching other tutors and receiving feedback from other tutors on your session.

There is no obligation––tutor as much or as little as you are available. We strive to keep our system flexible so tutors with many different levels of experience can get involved at whatever capacity they can.

Certifications let you tutor on Schoolhouse.world. It will also become part of your Schoolhouse.world transcript, which is a great way to demonstrate academic achievement, especially to colleges! Learn more on the Certification Page.

You will take a screen recording and webcam video of yourself thinking out loud while working through a Khan Academy unit test. This video will then be shared with two of your peers, who will verify that your explanations are thorough and that you have fully followed our protocols. Once your video has been approved, and you have also reviewed two of your peer’s videos, you will receive your certification.

You are always allowed to use scratch paper and a device with a webcam to take the test and can use any other tools that are explicitly asked for on a unit test. The Khan Academy tests have a built-in drawing tool that you can use to show your work on the screen if you would like. For example, if a calculator, graphing calculator, or a z table are recommended on the unit test, you may use one as long as you explain what you are doing and it can clearly be seen on the Khan Academy test that that is recommended.

Learn more in our Terms and Conditions.

Flagged submissions are reviewed by a team of internal reviewers, who investigate the claims made by peer reviewers. If the peer reviewer’s concern is validated, the user will be informed of their violation and asked to resubmit. Cases of dispute or recurring violation will be escalated to our review panel, consisting of experienced educators and high achieving students. This panel will determine the appropriate action, which may include a live audit to assess the user's reported mastery in the topic.

You should hear back about your assigned peer reviews within 48 hours of submissions. Once you have completed your review, you can expect your certification to be verified within 1-2 weeks.

Absolutely. We encourage you to review the content and then try again, as many times as you need.

The actual grading is done by Khan Academy’s website; peer reviews only verify that users followed protocol by following a narrow checklist of requirements. Additionally, peer reviewers who flag submissions without reasonable cause will be investigated and potentially removed from the system.

All users record themselves with screen-sharing and camera on, following protocols that minimize opportunities for cheating. They must explain each problem they solve thoroughly for the recording, which aids us in validating that they are doing the work. Peer reviewers look for suspicious behavior and flag any indication of policy violations. Finally, videos may be subject to further analysis at any time if our board or an inquiring institution has reason to suspect cheating.

While users abide by an honor statement, their transcript also links to their submission videos so universities can verify identity if they suspect violation of our honor statement.

Users who cheat will be blocklisted and their certifications will be rendered invalid.

To avoid bias, peer reviews are randomly assigned to users all over the world.

You are given a 5-character ID to identify yourself with instead of your full name, so peer reviewers cannot look you up.

Learn more in our Privacy Policy.